Reacher Said Nothing
Episode 7 of Reacher Season 1 starts starts with Stevenson and his partner Emma worried and debating about leaving town. Emma is pregnant and she thinks they should get away and get a fresh start. Unfortunately, that same black car from before shows up, holding four men with latex suits and a crowbar. Meanwhile, Reacher touches down in Atlanta and is picked up by Finlay at the airport. With his white shirt covered in blood, Reacher sports a jokey t-shirt and confirms to his partner that he played Hangman with an assassin. He also breaks the news that there could well be another dirty official working behind the scenes that they’re not aware of. After a brief cameo at Kliner Sr.’s funeral and picking Hubble’s car up at the shop, the pair are brought to the horrific scene at the Stevenson household. Emma and Stevenson are both killed, facing one another while tied to chairs. This murder is different. With all the mirrors strategically placed round them, it seems someone thought Stevenson knew something and as such, Emma was tortured in front of him. Given they’re both dead, it’s fair to assume neither had any information. Teale takes the pair outside, complete with his diamond cane, and decides to fire Finlay from his role. This leaves Reacher to go and speak to Officer Baker, the final officer in the station whom he’s doubtful is the dirty cop. Reacher gives his theory about what’s happening and given he has his an alibi, he throws shade at Finlay. Finlay has been in Margrave the entire time all of this is happening and given there’s something off with his story, Reacher believes he could well be responsible for the deaths. Hubble appears to be the loose end again so naturally, Reacher is going to break into his house and turn the place inside out that night to get answers. First up though, he needs to get some appropriate gear because the joke t-shirt isn’t going to cut it! So Reacher goes in with full army camo gear and face paint. While Finlay is busy giving personal condolences to Stevenson’s folks, Reacher gets the drop on the four latex-suit wearing goons, who show up at Hubble’s place that night. Dawson is among them. Reacher is knocked out with a crowbar and almost drowns after taking out the three other men. Reacher regains consciousness though and grabs his gun, hitting off several shots against his assailant. After the skirmish, Reacher rings Roscoe and lets her know what he’s figured out. It turns out the US dollar bills are all the same size and combined with Paul’s handy financial work, realizes that he was keeping Kliner happy with a fresh supply of one-dollar bills from cash-intensive industries like payday loans, casinos and the like. These notes would then be shipped into Margrave from all over the country. Kliner chemicals seem to have developed something to get rid of the ink off the bills and that brings them back to… animal feed. Yep, animal feed is the ingredient here and once washed off, the bills would then be stripped, beat up and printed on again to make it look like regular 100 dollar bills. A mass counterfeiting scheme. These notes would then be shipped overseas to Venezuela. It seems Joe’s garage could well hold some clues over this, which is precisely where Reacher heads next. En-route, he rings Roscoe, but also lets Finlay know but just before he does. However, Finlay notices several people outside approaching his motel room. They’ve found him and it appears Finlay isn’t a dirty cop after all. Following Reacher’s lead, Finlay manages to avoid the men and races off into his car, heading for safety. Of course, he leaves several bullet holes in the assailant’s tyres, just to make sure he’s not followed. When Reacher and Finlay make it to Joe’s place, they find the place completely burned to a cinder. However, a stray apostrophe from Joe’s note has them heading over to Jobling’s other address -the one his parents own. In the garage they find the same aircon boxes mixed among the junk but these ones are absolutely full of 100 dollar bills. It seems Finlay isn’t dirty after all but another member of their clan is. When Reacher rings Neagley, she confirms that The Viking has been dead for a while but his partner is still knocking around and working. And his name? Picard. When Reacher catches up with Finlay, he finds KJ, Teale and Picard all pointing guns at him and Finlay. He’s walked right into a trap.
The Episode Review
So the truth is finally out and it’s revealed that Teale, KJ and Picard are all in on this together, alongside Kliner Sr. too. We did know that this operation ran deep but it appears it’s infiltrated every part of law enforcement. This is particularly bad news for those involved here and with Finlay at gunpoint and Roscoe indisposed for the time being, Reacher has walked right into this big trap. The ties to Venezuela and understanding how all the money ties together is a nice touch and that’s been nicely developed across these episodes. However, everything is left on a precarious knife edge here, with it unknown who’s going to come out on top. Is this one case even Jack Reacher will struggle to come out of on top? We’ll have to wait and see!
